Mr. Padraic Moran:

I have cerebral palsy, which impairs my motor function and I, therefore, require a power wheelchair to get around. I work for Sky Ireland as a service specialist and for East Coast FM as a production assistant, sports reporter and broadcast co-ordinator. Sky Ireland are based on Burlington Road and I have commuted from Bray to Ballsbridge daily for the past three and a half years. I have observed the progressive worsening of the service provided by Irish Rail on the DART line, from stations being manned in the past to the current situation. Most people do not realise that people with disabilities or impairments do not like to ask for help and that it is very humbling to have to ask for assistance but it has to be done at certain times.

In terms of transport, we should be fully independent and autonomous to get on a bus or train without having to give four or 24 hours' notice. The current requirements are unfair. If any of the able-bodied population had to do that, people would not stand for it because it is against human rights. In Ireland, we seem to do things and then retrospectively acknowledge they do not work. I will highlight a few incidents that came into the public domain because I work in media and know how the system works and how to get a reaction. Other people cannot do that.

Last August, I left work and communicated with Pearse station. I am lucky because I have such a good relationship with the staff in the Irish Rail stations that I have the personal mobile numbers of some. Those good relations with the majority of staff is the reason for events such as these not happening to me more often. Last August, I was going home at approximately 8.30 p.m. or 9 p.m. after work in Sky and it was communicated to Bray that I was on the DART. I got to Bray but there was nobody there to assist me to disembark. I realised I was stuck. One might ask why I did not use the emergency button. Emergency buttons at wheelchair level on the DART are never armed and are mere decoration. I had to wedge my chair against the wall and try to stand up and break a little piece of plastic in order to push the button that is high up on the wall. The alarm went off. When I ended up in Greystones, the driver advised me that the alarm had gone off but he thought it was an error and never checked. I could have been attacked or having an asthma attack. Anything could have been happening. The driver did not bother checking what had happened. I lodged a complaint with the Railway Safety Authority about that incident but it did not follow it up. There is no reason to lodge a complaint because nobody will follow up on it. One is told that the company is very sorry and so on but nobody does anything.

On 17 December last, I was on my way home on a Sunday evening. At that time, DART trains are only every half an hour, so one must plan which DART one will take. I telephoned Pearse station and a staff member from Sandymount was sent up to put me on the train. He communicated to Bray. I got to Bray and nobody was there to assist me. I could not press the higher emergency button because I could not break the piece of plastic, so off I went to Greystones. I broadcast that experience on Facebook Live and for the second time called on the CEO of Irish Rail to be courageous and come out and speak to me. It is very easy to make cuts but it is harder to stand face to face with a person directly affected by the cuts. I went to Greystones. The DART had to get out of the way because the Rosslare train was approaching, so the doors began to close. I had to stick my legs out the doors to keep them open. It took the driver five minutes to come down to check why the doors were not closing, as a result of which I ended up with a swollen ankle. If I had not stuck my legs out the doors, I would have ended up on a siding because the DART had to be moved out of the way to allow the Rosslare train past. Having got off the DART, I then had to hope and pray that the Rosslare train driver would get out and put me on his train as not all Irish Rail drivers are insured to put down ramps and are not insured to leave their cabs because if there is an incident, they are in trouble. That is another big issue, in that there are no safety protocols in place and all one gets from Irish Rail is lip-service. It keeps happening. If something keeps happening, one fixes it rather than keep papering over the cracks, which Irish Rail is very good at doing and getting away with because nothing is happening and no one in Irish Rail seems to be answerable or trying to fix it. That is a fundamental issue.

I had an interview with Barry Kenny on East Coast FM in December where he talked about automated ramps for the DART. Automated ramps were piloted about ten years ago. They had to be abandoned for the simple reason that the infrastructure in some DART stations is so old. In certain station such as Seapoint, if it involves an eight-carriage DART, a person has to be on carriage three because there is no space anywhere else on the platform to go. When I argued this point with Barry Kenny, he totally dismissed it and told me the platforms are all the same length. Yes, they are all the same length. I was not arguing that. What I was arguing was that there is an infrastructural problem and that is part of the reason the company had to abandon it because it could not fit the ramps around the infrastructure because it is too old. When this was piloted before, the company was told it would have to redesign the system and that, fundamentally, this would cost too much money.

Another part of its argument is that people are not talking at windows or it is not making money because we have Leap cards. Irish Rail is still getting the money from the Leap card so that is another issue. Taking staff out of stations is the biggest issue. Due to the fact that I am in full-time employment, I am no longer entitled to the travel pass because, according to the system, I was cured when I got a job. I inadvertently probably set a trap for Irish Rail a couple of months ago when I made this public knowledge. Last Thursday evening, when I was leaving work, I got three separate phone calls from three members of staff in three different stations on the DART station telling me Irish Rail's revenue protection unit was out to catch me without a ticket. What they do not know is that I obviously buy my ticket because I have to and I do not mind that. However, this is a ploy on their part to set me up to get me to go away and stop giving out and fighting for people. My fundamental argument is that I am lucky with my cerebral palsy. I can talk, communicate, articulate and say "This is wrong." Some people with disabilities and impairments cannot do that. According to the last census, just over 600,000 people are registered with disabilities. It is a lot easier to make cuts because we are not a big voting group. We cannot get out in mass protests. Last year, the entire country was discommoded by a bus strike and it got sorted out. Why? It was because the entire population was discommoded. People with disabilities are discommoded every day but it is acceptable because we cannot take protest en masse. We cannot get out and say "This is wrong" because there so few of us are actually able to do. Ms Murray and I are sitting here for the ones who do not have a voice. We have to fight for the ones who cannot fight.

I have said that I am really lucky in that I am a two-time Paralympic athlete. I have travelled around the world to places like Beijing, Portugal, Brazil and Canada. I have seen many different transport systems. When I was in Porto in 2016, I could get on its tram system and get into the city centre by myself without assistance. I could do it in Paris. I visited Wales for the Ireland match last November and I got on a train. If Europe can do it, why can Ireland not do it? It is very simple. We have a knack in Ireland of building things and then not following up on systems. We build it and then realise we have made a mistake instead of actually doing it from the outside. Last week, Irish Rail launched its accessibility app. I am on the committee for that app. That app has not been fully tested. I am going in next Wednesday to test that app with Irish Rail. Irish Rail launched that in Connolly Station. Irish Rail left two people on the platform. Connolly Station has the most staff of any DART station. If Irish Rail cannot get it right for a launch, what hope do the rest of us have for the rest of the time? I am really lucky that I am here today because of Ciarán Delaney and Senator John Dolan. Without them, I would not have known that this was even possible. As a result of the fact that I was so distressed last Thursday, they were so good in trying to help me in terms of the revenue protection unit. Deputy Brady can attest to the state I was in, as can Aisling Dunne because she also rang me to make sure I was okay. I have to get help from a system that should be there.

We are now on the cusp of something great whereby we are about to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This committee has the chance to actually make the system work and not accept this. The problem is that it is accepted because we cannot protest en masse, which is part of the problem. Like Ms Murray, I should not have to ring Ciarán Delaney in a panic or ring Deputy Brady and tell him that I am in trouble because the system is broken and a company wants me to go away. That the outgoing CEO of Irish Rail does not want to meet me and will not respond to me demonstrates a lot of contempt on his part. I am contacted by Barry Kenny, Jane Cregan and some other people. I do not want them. I want him. I want him to sit down and tell me why this is happening because I can guarantee that if Irish Rail said tomorrow or RTÉ "Six One News" announced that every citizen in this country had to give four hours notice to use transport, it would not happen because it would be sorted out because it would involve the entire country. A minority group is being discommoded and it is almost like we are not respected as humans, which is a fundamental issue that needs to be addressed. Were it not for the likes of Ciarán Donnelly, I would not be here today. He is doing his best to try to highlight issues but, again, as Ms Murray said, we should not have to do that. We should not be here. The system should be there to protect us. This is fundamentally what I want. It is not about me. It is not about me getting the DART. Fundamentally, it is about protecting people who cannot communicate. I know people who have a speech impediment. If they have to pick up a phone and use a touch talker, the person at the other end of the phone does not know that so it will take them 30 or 40 seconds to type something out. That person will not wait. Fundamentally, we need to protect people with disabilities and give them equal rights. We should not be saying "This is what we need to do because of cutbacks." Put staff in stations. We have €13 billion coming back from Apple. That is money that could put staff back in stations. That is something that could be used build a better infrastructure and give people equal rights, not lip service and saying "Well, we are going to try". I am tired of getting apologies. It has got to the point where Irish Rail does not even apologise to me because it happens so often.

Before the outgoing CEO came in, passengers were informed when lifts were out of order. That is not there anymore because he simply did not want negative publicity. I do not know about the members but I would much rather than have that on a board than an article in the Irish Independentsaying how I could not get out of a station because the lift was broken. I am really lucky in that I have travelled and seen different systems. I spoke to the Minister last week and I know he is trying to deal with it but he is only dealing with it now because people like Ms Murray and I are bringing it to the forefront. We should not have to do that. As Deputies and Senators, the members are supposed to look after those who are deemed to be vulnerable. Some people with disabilities are really vulnerable. They are not being looked after and protected. I thank the committee for listening.